The selection of three recruits to send to the Massachusetts State Police Academy hit another bump at Wednesday night’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting. At the meeting, a decision was postponed for another week to bolster the ranks.

Selectmen Chairman Donald Setters thought the board was voting to “sponsor” the reserves they chose for the 21-week training academy.

He said he thought permanent jobs on the force would be at selectmen’s discretion at a future time.

Michael Holtzman

The selection of three recruits to send to the Massachusetts State Police Academy hit another bump at Wednesday night’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting. At the meeting, a decision was postponed for another week to bolster the ranks.

Selectmen Chairman Donald Setters thought the board was voting to “sponsor” the reserves they chose for the 21-week training academy.

He said he thought permanent jobs on the force would be at selectmen’s discretion at a future time.

Police Chief Joseph Ferreira said past practice has been for selectmen to make the appointments pending recruits passing physical and psychological examinations.

When they start at the academy, their pay would be at 80 percent of starting police pay, or about $670 a week, Ferreira said.

The salary is 90 percent of pay for the ensuing probationary year of work and 100 percent of pay the next year.

Ferreira said he recently attended a meeting with a few dozen Massachusetts police chiefs and asked about “sponsorships” versus “appointments” to the academy.

That was after Ferreira, Capt. Stephen Moniz, Town Administrator Dennis Luttrell and Selectmen Patrick O’Neil, Scott Lebeau and Setters exited their lengthy executive session, which extended beyond the 6 p.m. start of the public meeting.

“I wish I had been aware of this before now,” Setters said, apologizing for being unaware of the requirements, which he said made sense.

He said a reserve officer — who’s already had training and had been preparing for five months of state training to become a full-time officer — should probably be sure of a job when completing that stint.

“In my mind, sponsorships were the town sending recruits to the academy, and when a spot opened up, we would do so,” Setters said of the misunderstanding, for which he took responsibility.

After weeks of selectmen and Ferreira debating the staffing needs of the department and budget constraints of the town, now, Ferreira said, he understood that selected reserve officers “really become full-time police officers immediately."

Ferreira took the opportunity to restate his case on a department he said is down 10 percent of its complement now and will be another 10 percent short in the next eight months with announced retirements.

“We’re at a critical stage. We’ve never lost 10 officers in 18 months,” he said of the rash of retirements and unusual circumstances.

While Ferreira and Setters went back and forth making cases for adequate public safety versus balancing dire financial straights, the bottom line was three of 11 reserves interviewed last week will attend one of the upcoming police academies, officials said.

Most likely they will start March 31 in Plymouth. But Ferreira, in a rush to get the training process moving, named others on Jan. 13, Feb. 3 and March 10 in Boylston, Springfield and Reading.

The town cannot reserve spots until after appointments are made and the recruits pass minimum requirements.

At that point, if the academy is not for a period, the town can begin field training with a full-time officer to shorten that requirement after the academy, Ferreira said.

Setters noted that he wanted to reshape the department’s supervisory alignment to address budget shortfalls. He asked for “time for me to think the whole thing through” by delaying the appointments to the next meeting Wednesday night.

On another 2-1 vote along the board’s typical division, Selectman Scott Lebeau made the motion to accept Setters’ request, and Selectman Patrick O’Neil voted no.